Free Republic

As the work-from-home trend took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “quiet quitting” entered the contemporary lexicon. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Quiet quitters continue to fulfill their primary responsibilities, but they’re less willing to engage in activities known as citizenship behaviors: no more staying late, showing up early, or attending non-mandatory meetings.” Simply put, having perceived their jobs to not have value and meaning, they do no more than absolutely necessary. There is debate among scholars as to the extent of the quiet quitting phenomenon, but there is increasing evidence that white Americans are increasingly quiet quitting...

So much has changed in just a few days: one week ago people cared about boring stuff like seasonally adjusted payrolls (a product of White House administration propaganda as much as actual data) and the readjusted Consumer Price Index (also a product of White House administration propaganda as much as actual data). Well, nothing like a bank crisis to clear one’s head of goal-seeked data that would make Beijing blush. And also – apparently – there is nothing like a bank crisis to send inflation expectations plummeting. Earlier today, in breach of today’s data vacuum, the NY Fed published its...

Inflation re-accelerated in the US and Europe last month, highlighting sticky price pressures that keep central banks ultra-hawkish and committed to increasing the terminal rate. Interest rate markets are still repricing the ‘about face’ in the disinflation narrative, which has caused cross-asset turmoil. Despite the lingering inflation storm, there is good news: global food prices in February declined for the eleventh consecutive month. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index fell .6% last month to 129.8. Last month’s decline was driven by the price of slumping cooking oils and dairy products, while grain and meat prices were...

This is an absolutely brilliant speech by British satirist, Konstantine Kisin. (snip)(Click to the site to see the excellent video)

While the Biden administration is hoping and praying that someone – anyone – will watch the comical “Jan 6” kangaroo hearsay court taking place in Congress and meant to somehow block Trump from running for president in 2024 while also making hundreds of millions of Americans forget that the current administration could very well be the worst in US history, it is quietly preparing for the worst. As none other than pro-Biden propaganda spinmaster CNN reports, when it comes to what really matters (at least according to Gallup), namely the economy, and specifically galloping gasoline prices, the White House is...

American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once said that “experience is an expensive school but fools will learn in no other.” Germany’s green energy policy, launched in the year 2000, could have been a cheap lesson for America today. The Biden administration has chosen to follow Germany, providing heavy subsidies for wind and solar, while suppressing industries that could reliably meet America’s energy needs and even reduce its carbon footprint. In January, the administration announced that it had “pulled every lever to position America to scale up clean energy … the Biden-Harris Administration has readied offshore areas to harness power from...

Three tropical disturbances are being closely monitored for development in the Atlantic as fears mount that above-average storms could wreak havoc on oil/gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico and send gas prices at the pump to “apocalyptic” heights. “The lull in the tropics has come to an end as we’re now watching three different areas for development from the Gulf of Mexico to the central Atlantic,” The Weather Channel reports. The first system is an area of low pressure in the northern Gulf of Mexico and is expected to track westward early this week and could dump heavy rains...

We’ve just seen huge market volatility. This week promises more given it’s month and quarter end with key positioning, portfolio reallocation, and short squeezes all in play. On top of that, the news continues to underline the central thesis: that the ‘one size fits all/one world for all’ neoliberal/liberal/’new normal’ system is collapsing. Red v Blue Friday’s US Supreme Court overruling of Roe v Wade was a shock despite having been flagged in an unprecedented leak. It was leading news on Bloomberg and the Financial Times because it exposes US fault-lines. Overturning a near-50 year constitutional precedent means we have...

After an unexpected rise in US durable goods orders (in May) and pending home sales (in May), the Dallas Fed’s Manufacturing Survey (in June) plunged to its lowest since May 2020.Source: BloombergThe survey was expected to rise modestly from -7.3 to -6.5, but plunged to -17.7. New Orders crashed into negative territory and employment weakened significantly. The comments from survey respondents are perhaps most enlightening of the reality facing many businesses in America: foreign dependence, cost inflation, over-regulation, and Biden energy policies… ◾As a country, we are not looking at the future and establishing relationships with emerging countries like we...

Dangerously high inflation has left Americans deeply dissatisfied with the economy and likely to punish the Democrats in this year’s midterm elections. US President Joe Biden would be wise to follow the example of his predecessor Bill Clinton, lest he end up sharing a political fate similar to Jimmy Carter’s.Thirty years ago, Democratic political strategist James Carville focused Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign with the mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid.” America had just experienced a relatively brief, mild recession, owing partly to sharply rising oil prices following Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. Between the slow recovery and Ross Perot’s independent candidacy...

While Twitter routinely bans conservatives, those who challenge the government-sanctioned Covid-19 narrative, or the results of the 2020 US election, threatening to assassinate a Supreme Court justice is just fine. “I’m going to assassinate supreme court justice Clarence Thomas,” tweeted user @redfrnn after Friday’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Upon reporting the tweet, Twitter said it didn’t break the rules. In case anyone was wondering, threatening to assassinate a Supreme Court Justice doesn’t violate @Twitter rules. But people get suspended for stating scientific facts. pic.twitter.com/DYvWTts8jn — Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 24, 2022 The same user posted a...

While everyone has been transfixed by the unexpected drop in the UMich 5/10 year inflation expectations, which dropped to 3.1% from a preliminary 3.3% print, which means that the alarm signal that prompted the Fed to panic last week and prompted the market to aggressively reprice (lower) the odds of future Fed hikes… … the report also showed the lowest consumer sentiment reading in the 70-year history of the series, realistically speaking a far more troubling indicator than what a small group of respondents think inflation will be in 10 years (spoiler alert, it will be much higher than they...

President Biden will attend the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Saudi Arabia next month, with the explicit goal of convincing the GCC — that is, the Saudis — to increase production of crude oil as a tool with which reduce gasoline prices in the U.S. From a recent press conference: Q: And my question on Saudi Arabia: Why not have the President go there and just not meet with the Crown Prince? MR. KIRBY: The President is going to Saudi for the GCC — the GCC+3, to be honest. It’s nine states in the region. There’s a big agenda there,...

With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on over the Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe vs. Wade and pass the lawmaking onus on to the states, the court’s decision to overturn New York’s ban on conceal carry and other gun rights might get buried in the chaos. Extreme leftist and corporate “journalist” Keith Olbermann certainly had a lot to say about it, though. Incensed by the idea that a government body might actually rule against common leftist policy, the calls for violence and even (*gasp) insurrection have been rising. Specifically, the left believes that intimidation or outright...

Satellite imagery revealed that the United States is constructing a new military facility in the Pacific, possibly preparing an alternative landing site for its airforce should the military bases on Guam become inoperable. Land-clearing activity has been spotted at Tinian International Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands, based on satellite images obtained by The War Zone on June 15. An annotated satellite image showing the full scope of planned construction as part of the Tinian Divert Airfield project. USAF Past satellite imagery from the Planet Lab suggests that construction work at the site started in May. This appears to correspond...

Democratic countries are proposing a new Pacific-wide pact to strengthen cooperation and development efforts in the region to combat Beijing’s influence building and hybrid warfare operations. The “Partners in the Blue Pacific” would involve the United States, Australia, France, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom to provide “closer, more purposeful, and more ambitious cooperation.” “Too often, our efforts have been uncoordinated, creating duplication in some cases and gaps on the others,” according to a concept note about the pact. The partnership was earmarked by U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell at a Center for Strategic and International Studies meeting on...

The IMF was one of the first establishment institutions to admit that inflation was a legitimate threat to the US economy last year, however, they were very late to the game compared to economists in the alternative media. In March of 2021 IMF analysts were still arguing that inflation would be “transitory” despite the enormous $6 trillion covid stimulus in 2020 which was injected by the Federal Reserve directly into US retail markets through covid checks and PPP loans (helicopter money). Nearly all of the IMF’s predictions on inflation turned out to be wrong. This fact should be taken into...

After a single Federal Reserve rate hike of 75bps I am noticing a trend among mainstream economists whipping out their crystal balls and predicting an almost immediate reversion to deflationary conditions. In their view, a recession will “balance everything out.” For most of these people I would suggest that they keep their crystal balls in their pants; they have been consistently wrong and it’s time for them to shut up. If you were predicting that inflation would be “transitory” last year, then you have no right to act like you are an economist today. It’s going to take a lot...

U.S. diesel consumption is likely to decline by 200,000 to 600,000 barrels per day (5%-15%) over the next year as the economy slows in response to rising interest rates. The Federal Reserve is not deliberately trying to induce a recession to bring inflation under control, central bank chief Jerome Powell told legislators on Wednesday. But he said that was a possible and foreseeable outcome of rapid rate rises – an interesting application of the doctrine of double effect. The central bank hopes for soft landing but feels it must risk a hard one to reduce inflation running at the fastest...

North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley wants to know what Bill Gates' intentions are after the tech billionaire purchased six parcels of land in the state's Pembina County. Public records cited by AgWeek show that 2,100 acres of potato farmland were purchased from the owners of Campbell Farms, a potato farming group that is headquartered in Grafton, North Dakota, about 50 miles from the Canadian border. According to The Daily Caller, Wrigley sent a letter to Red River Trust — a group with ties to Gates — on Tuesday, demanding to know how it intends to use the land. North...